Category: Academics

Igor Stravinsky’s ‘The Rite of Spring’

March 1, 2013 at 10:00 am

Relating to CC202′s current study of Modernism, the Core presents Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”. Upon its release, it was controversial and supposedly caused a ‘riot’ in the Parisian premiere audience… This debated topic is discussed in an article by Tom Service of The Guardian titled The Rite of Spring- the Work of a Madman.Here [...]

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Core Texts on Leadership

February 28, 2013 at 1:37 pm

Here are samples from the Odyssey, the Aeneid, and Don Quixote on the topic of leadership: My child, what strange remarks you let escape you. Could I forget that kingly man, Odysseus? There is no mortal half so wise; no mortal gave so much to the lords of open sky. ~ The Odyssey, Book I, [...]

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“Penelope Waiting” by Sassan Tabatabai

February 28, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Core Professor Tabatabai, in his poem Penelope Waiting, writes: They say: ‘After twenty years, why does she still wait for him? He must have succumbed to Poseidon’s wrath. his bleached bones, on an unknown beach, have become the pelican’s fare.’ To read this poem in its entirety, please visit the Core Office in search of [...]

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The Penelopiad: A Great Experience

February 26, 2013 at 12:49 pm

The Penelopiad turned out to be as interesting and multi-layered as we had expected, attracting about 35 Core students and many more theater fans! Following the events of the Odyssey from the female perspective, the play interwove the voice of Penelope and the voices of her twelve maids who are killed in the end at [...]

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Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There!

February 26, 2013 at 12:14 pm

The Core Curriculum offers CC102-related intellectual stickers advocating what Buddha would say to Arjuna: Everyone interested can email core@bu.edu or Tweet to Prof. Eckel @taoofcore, to request their own sticker and the Core will mail it to them!

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Justifying Coercive Paternalism

February 26, 2013 at 11:58 am

In his compelling article, Cass Sunstein explores the validity of Mill’s ideas on government and the individual. Here is a sample: In his great essay, Mill insisted that as a general rule, government cannot legitimately coerce people if its only goal is to protect people from themselves. Mill contended that: The only purpose for which [...]

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CC105 Information

February 25, 2013 at 3:04 pm

To all CC105 students, Nate and Gayle, your Core Mentors, will be sending out weekly emails summarizing the important topics from the lectures that week, reminding you of assignments and giving you links to some science articles that you may find interesting. The Core Blog will regularly be updated with what is being sent in [...]

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W. H. Auden’s Syllabus

February 25, 2013 at 2:20 pm

In this article, Jeva Lange lets us peek into the extremely heavy reading list college students would receive from W.H. Auden for his class, Fate and the Individual in European Literature, as seen above. Compare this to all the Core reading lists combined! http://bit.ly/W8oTLj For the full article, visit http://nydn.us/13aM8q4

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The Essay as Reality Television

February 22, 2013 at 10:05 am

Adam Kirsch discusses whether or not essays are “extinct” as a form of writing, and references Michel e Montaigne, whose work is studied in CC201. Here is a sample: The essay, traditionally, was defined by its freedom and its empiricism—qualities that it inherited from its modern inventor, Montaigne. “What do I know?” Montaigne asked, and [...]

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Sting & Confucius

February 21, 2013 at 12:46 pm

The Core presents a song by Sting titled Englishman in New York. It’s message relates to CC102′s study of the Analects of Confucius. The Confucian idea of the ethics of a “gentleman”, to some extent, provides directions on how to behave in the “gentlemanly” way when in a foreign land. Sting addresses this idea of [...]

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